Fig & Olive Tapenade

I have a weakness for bite-sized nibbles. Everything is so much cuter when it’s pint-sized or wrapped up in a neat little package. The thought of a obese cheeseburger makes me cringe. But, if that cheeseburger was divided into 20 petite sliders, I could eat my weight in them. Just a simple triscuit cracker transforms with an elegant topping which is where my fig & olive tapenade recipe comes into play.

Remember when I said I used to be a picky eater? Well, olives used to be one of the foods I despised. So in order to slowly introduce them into my diet (baby steps remember) I would mix them with something a little sweeter to dull their briny flavor. Awhile back I stumbled across a recipe for this tapenade (which may have been this David Lebowitz recipe) soon lost it and was forced to wing it. Every time I make it, I’ll just dump all the ingredients into the food processor, or at least all the ones I can remember, and pulse it together.

Even though I absolutely love olives now, I still prefer this tapenade with luscious figs. It’s more of a compote really. In order to balance out the sweetness of the tapenade, I love to pair it with a thin ribbon of proscuitto and a dallop of goat cheese. Those components tie it all together in a nice little package. Just like I like.

Fig & Olive Tapenade

1 clove of garlic

1 cup of dried figs, quartered (you can find them next to the dried cranberries and raisins)

1/2 cup of kalamata olives, rinsed and pitted

1 teaspoon of capers, rinsed

1/2 lemon, juiced

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon chopped rosemary

pinch of salt and pepper

1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil

Optional: prosciutto and goat cheese

Place the garlic clove in a food processor and pulse a few times to make sure it gets minced thoroughly. Then add in the dried figs, olives, capers, lemon juice, dijon mustard, honey, rosemary, salt, pepper, and olive oil.